Mr. and Mrs. Maximilian Edelbacher were delighted by COYO’s performance last night in Vienna’s Minoritenkirche. Edelbacher is an international security expert with ACUNS, the Academic Council on United Nations System. The couple still treasures the friends they made several years ago while living in Hudson and Kent and are big fans of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Yes, that’s the Music Director of COYO’s parent orchestra, Franz Welser Most, in the background. He made a surprise appearance at Monday night’s concert and said that when COYO played Dvorak, Elgar, Wagner and Brahms, he could hear the result of the coaching they are getting from members of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Joe Short is the longtime stage manager of the Cleveland Orchestra and a good friend to many of the musicians, but he’s apparently having more fun making sure the stage looks right and all the instruments are safe on the COYO tour than on the many tours he’s made with the parent orchestra. He says “It’s really nice to see how excited the kids are to be over here.”

Many of the larger instruments were rented in Vienna, but they all have to get to the right place at the right time and the orchestra apparently wanted to make sure a pro was in charge when they sent Joe Short over with the young players.

I’m wondering what the turnout will be for tonight’s concert at the Minoritenkirche. More than 700 heard COYO in Dvorak Hall in Prague.

Michael Stohrman works for the Viennese Ministry of Justice. He brought his wife Avelina and 14 year old son, Jan, to town to have ice cream on a warm, sunny day.

Will they take in the COYO concert tonight?

Michael Storrman: “It is sometimes impossible to get a ticket in the evening. Sometimes you have to reservate months before, and I remember a Vienna Philharmonic concert and I got just one ticket and sat behind the orchestra, but I enjoyed it.”

Jan said he probably would have liked it, too, but classical is only one of the genres he likes. “In fact I like rap and stop set. That is a mix of dop, some sort of African music and rap.

“I hear also classic not really because I like it, but because my mom likes it.”

Stopping for an ice cream under a linden tree near the hotel in Schwedenplatz I struck up a conversation with Rainer Schmidt, a 20-something classical guitar student at a Viennese academy for arts and music. He had not been aware that the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra was performing here tonight.

Schmidt says that with the large number of concerts always going on here, it’s hard to get noticed. “I guess especially for tourists because we have so many possibilities every day. I’m happy to live here.”

Hahnes Blochner is a Viennese wood industry trade magazine writer. He says he only goes to two or three classical concerts a year but he’s making it a point to get to the Minoritenkirche  Monday night for COYO’s concert because of the reputation of the Cleveland Orchestra.